Peter Parker
"Man! Now that felt really good! To swing in and lend a hand to balance the scales of justice! To know that I'm appreciated... that my adoring public knows that I'm about more than just the punching and the hitting... That I'm respected for -- ahhh, who'm I kidding?!" Character Stat Sheet Public Information Peter Parker is a student at Empire State University and a photographer for the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man is New York's controversial home town hero. A hero to some, a masked menace to others, Spidey has been an active part of the New York heroes scene since 2007 and has even been part of the Underground Avengers before returning to some solo web-slinging. Background 'About a Boy...' ---- Once upon a time there was a boy... and his name was Peter Parker. Beloved by his parents (Richard and Mary), who doted upon him, he enjoyed an idyllic upbringing... right up until the day they died in a plane crash. Parker was still only a young child when fate tragically orphaned him, and he never did learn the truth behind the circumstances that led to his parents' deaths. In point of fact, Richard and Mary were assigned by the CIA to infiltrate an Algerian spy-ring - under the command of the Red Skull. Parker's devoted aunt and uncle - Ben and May - became his legal guardians, and they loved their young nephew as if he were their own son. Life, however, was no longer easy. Money was scarce. Difficult times lay ahead - and not merely because such a young boy had to come to terms with losing his parents. School became a problem - more specifically, fitting into school. Although he was more than intelligent (gifted, one might say), he had terrible trouble finding acceptance amongst his fellow students. Parker was a geek - the stereotypical science-geek - brilliant in the lab, terrible in the field - and the constant bullying he suffered daily quickly led him to developing the habits of a recluse. He devoted himself to his studies, and avoided as much social contact as possible. But he had Harry. Harry (son of Norman Osborn, the head of OsCorp), had been Peter's best friend (and for a long time, his only friend), since childhood. Harry kept Peter sane, kept him going - and vice versa. Mr. Osborn wasn't the most affectionate father to his son - and Peter had lost his parents, so there was a strong connection between the two boys. When all else failed, Harry and Peter would be there for each other. 'Along Came a Spider...' ---- This was Peter Parker's world. He was arguably the 'smartest kid in school' - and this came as both a blessing and a curse (perhaps more of the latter, than the former). He excelled mightily in his classes - and suffered the ridicule of his peers every other waking moment (Harry often stood up for him - but he couldn't be there all the time). In a lot of ways, Peter had everything one might expect of a "teenage geek": he had his nemesis (Flash Thompson - never to be called by his real name, "Eugene", on pain of death). He had his "first crush" (Gwen Stacy) - and later, the "girl-next-door" who would become his emotional anchor in life (Mary-Jane Watson). And, of course, he had Harry, his best friend. And then he had a bite -- -- from a spider. In 2007, A spider that had been subjected to radiation poisoning and biological experimentation in a lab, in the Empire State University. Parker was sixteen at the time. That single bite changed everything for the socially-challenged young man; after waking the next day to discover he had wrecked his room, he soon found the spider's venom had granted him myriad other abilities - and all of them awesome. He was stronger, faster, ridiculously agile - able to easily avoid attempts to harm him - and even endowed with a form of precognition. That spider had gifted him with spidey super-powers... all in a single bite. Best. Bite. Ever. And the glory of Peter's newfound abilities went straight to his head. 'Death in the Family...' ---- Initially in a bid to impress his first crush, Gwen Stacy (get money, get the girl...), Parker donned a self-made costume of red and blue, skin-tight spandex and signed up to fight in a public wrestling match. With the combination of his wit, wiles and spidey-wonders he quickly defeated his first opponent and became an instant sensation across the Internet. 2007 became the "Year of the Spider" (well, to Peter Parker it did). Peter's relationships with his Aunt and Uncle - and his friends at school - suffered after that. He became pig-headed, arrogant, and lazy. He skipped classes - too busy trying out his new powers, and building gadgets like web-slingers - to fulfil his duties. He had more important things to do than studying... and thus his Uncle Ben (knowing nothing of Peter's abilities or wrestling antics), endeavoured to talk some sense into him. Peter blew him off and stormed out (after all, Spider-Man had an appointment on the Tonight Show). That would be the last time he ever spoke with his Uncle. After the TV spot, Parker had the opportunity to stop a burglar on the run (who had robbed the studio) - he shrugged it off as 'not his problem', and let the thief escape. Later on that night, Peter returned home to find police surrounding his house. They brought with them devastating news - Ben Parker had been shot and killed. In a blind rage, Peter donned his costume and web-shooters, and went hunting. 'With Great Power...' ---- Parker found the murderer. He beat the man to within an inch of his life, but the incident did far worse damage to Peter himself - when he realised that the man who had killed his uncle was the same man that had robbed the studio earlier that day... the man he had let pass him by. Peter was gutted. From that day forward, he moved through life with the burden of his mistake weighing him down - and the determination to make good come of it urging him on. Parker's life split in two - as Peter he continued his studies, tried to hang out with his friends, looked after his Aunt May, and scraped out a living as a freelance photographer. As Spider-Man he swung on webs of his own making high above the city, righting wrongs wherever he could find them - while at the same time trying to avoid the law enforcement departments that were determined to arrest him for being a vigilante. Peter didn't care. He had a job to do. He saved the weak from the strong that preyed upon them. He put many a villain behind bars. He made enemies. Lots of enemies (and not all of them villains). And the price of his chosen path rose higher. In 2008, Norman Osborn - the father of Peter's best friend - in a desperate bid to save his company, took experimental performance-enhancing drugs (to prove their worth to the military), and in doing so... his mind snapped. A masked and armoured villain calling himself the Green Goblin began waging turf-war against Wilson Fisk - the infamous "Kingpin of Crime", with the citizens of New York caught in the middle. Parker intervened, teaming up with another masked vigilante: Daredevil, to stop them. Whilst both the Kingpin and the Goblin were defeated, the latter escaped - his identity (as Norman Osborn) intact. Thus, Parker had no idea who the 'Goblin was, until he resurfaced again months later, in 2009. That fateful battle cost Peter Parker his own secret identity, making his loved ones - Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, and even Harry Osborn - vulnerable to attack. Osborn saw his opportunity, and took it. He gravely injured Aunt May, and then kidnapped Peter's girlfriend to lure him out for a terrible, "endgame" battle. They fought. And everyone lost. Peter lost Gwen - who died tragically in his arms. The Green Goblin also perished - and Harry Osborn lost his father. 'Comes Great Responsibility...' ---- The true burden upon Parker's shoulders didn't really reveal itself to him until after Stacy's death. The onus was upon him not only to save those who could not save themselves - but also to protect those close to him from getting caught in the crossfire. He would have to distance himself from his loved ones - somehow - in order to keep them from suffering the fate of Gwen Stacy (that is to say, none of them could ever know that Peter Parker was Spider-Man). Furthermore, he had to keep the truth (of Norman Osborn's fate) from Harry, whilst still being there for his grieving friend. It was... not easy. Especially since it was these relationships, these precious people in his life, who gave Parker the strength and courage he needed to pick himself up after Gwen died... and return to the fight. Parker became the 'Unsung Hero' of New York City - 'unsung' largely because of the articles posted by J. Jonah Jameson, Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Bugle newspaper, who regularly denounced Spider-Man. Ironically, this was the same paper that published Peter's photographs (which were mostly of himself - as Spider-Man), thus paying his way and enabling him to continue being a superhero. He tried - he really tried - to keep some distance (emotional distance) between himself and Mary-Jane Watson. There was also a certain, pretty blonde cat-burglar that also managed to steal a piece of Peter's heart... What's a fellow to do? While Parker struggled with the notion of 'no attachments' (by now he was living alone in his own apartment), his dalliances with the burglar known as Black Cat at least allowed him some romance in his life. Alas, Black Cat's lawless ways brought her into conflict with Parker's do-gooding, making a long-term relationship impossible. What can one say? Nice Spiders finish last. And single. Fighting crime as Spider-Man took up most of Parker's time - so much so that his already hectic 'home life' suffered terribly from his frequent absences. More indignities followed, from issues like losing credit for his good deeds to other people (like the local law-enforcement), being blamed for crimes he helped thwart - to things like going through a dozen Spidey-costumes in a month (huge fashion bills), or having to fight crime in nothing but makeshift 'underwear' (literally made 'on the fly') out of web-fluid... YouTube clips of that footage went viral. Johnny Storm (of the Fantastic Four) even asked Parker to sign his printed and framed photos of that incident... 'Civil War...' ---- 2010 was an interesting year - even by "Peter Parker" standards. At an invitation by none other than Reed Richards (A.K.A. Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four), Parker assisted with research into the phenomenon of "cross-dimensional drift" (basically, the relation between different, parallel universes, and the threads or bridges - if any - between them). There was much "geeking out" in the experience - especially in Peter's case. Parker designed himself a new costume out of some alien material - which turned out to be a quasi-sentient, symbiotic life-form. Who knew? Richards helped Parker remove it, and the symbiote disappeared. Peter kept the costume design. Then, "interesting" became chaos. In the wake of an incident involving Iron Man, the world-famous superhero team, the Avengers, disbanded - a result of the Department of Superhuman Activities taking over the Avengers themselves (which was their own response to Iron Man's... episode). Several of the Avengers took serious issue with the government's actions, and resigned. They formed a new group of Underground Avengers - who would continue fighting crime, but without government sanction. Parker, somewhat caught in the middle, joined them, and his short list of friends grew as a result - particularly with Clinton Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye. The Department of Superhuman Activities did not like having a renegade band of vigilantes running around calling themselves "Avengers", so they ordered their "official" Avengers team to hunt down them down (Peter included). The result? Superhero Civil War. This... "war" continued on - pitting sanctioned heroes against renegades, friends against friends - until it resulted in the death of a hero,Battlestar. Both Avenger teams disbanded, and - in 2012 - Parker returned to being a lone vigilante. Mercifully, some good came out of it for him: the NYPD changed its attitude toward Spider-Man and no longer treated him as 'Public Enemy Number One'. Even Jameson seemed to cut the webslinger some slack. Small victories. Small, blessed victories. 'A Tale of Two Worlds...' ---- In 2013, "chaos" turned into lunacy. When the events that would come to be known collectively as The Merge began to occur, Parker had finally managed to return his own 'world' to normal. Normal for him, that is. He had kept himself out of more 'epic' conflicts (for a year - a new record), focusing instead on the 'people caught in between' in his hometown. He was still the best of friends with Harry, and the best of friends with MJ (Mary-Jane). His 'dayjob' as a photographer was finally paying off for him, and he had made notable progress in his studies. So of course the world had to go to hell by dragging another world - a parallel world - into it, in some... astronomical, colossal 'merge'. (Actually, the science of the whole thing made a lot of sense to Peter Parker). Teaming up with Iceman of the X-Men (and others), Peter Parker travelled across dimensions to the 'other' Earth - finding himself in the city of Metropolis. There they assisted Superboy in battling the Injustice League. Good times! ("Good" in that they, the heroes of Peter's world, got to experience what it was like to be loved, really loved by the public - not "good that the multiverse was having contractions". That was bad). Parker also met Perry White, Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Planet - with many an uncomfortable moment there, given White's similarities to Jameson. In the end, both Parker and Drake were very reluctant to return to their own world. But return they did. There was much 'geeking out' (at least on Parker's side) regarding the quantum mechanics of the whole incident. 'Your Friendly Neighbourhood...' ---- If The Merge accomplished one thing, it brought more people together. Erm, pun intended. The crisis had left massive destruction in its wake, and human citizens did what they usually do in a major crisis - band together, then try to tear each other apart. The riots that erupted in Mutant Town in New York forced Parker to work closely with the X-Men - in particular the younger mutants of Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning, and those of Generation X. He made more friends - friends who knew all too well the kind of prejudice and toil with which Peter had had to live. And then, of course, Norman Osborn returned. Because the multiverse is cruel like that. Osborn made sure Parker knew he still knew about him - and warned him to not interfere. Great. 2013 ended and gave way to '14... Peter graduated college and set his sights on the future - a future with two identities (since he had managed to keep his secret), two Earths, twice the villains... and twice the heroes. He prepared as best he could for the 'Goblin to make his move again, and continued watching over the people of New York. Because everybody needs a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. Personality * Driven - There are no limits to which Peter Parker will not go to save an innocent life. In fact, the many complaints he makes (in general) are a distraction from the real grit and determination he possesses. He is iron-willed, and extremely protective of those whom he cares about. * Science Geek - Peter is a science geek, and it shows. Catch him when he meets some of his heroes in the scientific community - or when he makes discoveries or advancements on his own - and bear witness to his transformation into a consummate fanboy. * Guilt Complex - Guilt is Peter Parker's greatest hang-up. It is also his greatest drive. He has lost so many loved ones - and he blames himself. Look closely and one will see the truth of why he pushes himself so hard: so that no one ever dies on his watch again. * Neurotic - Peter is a bit weird - well, more than a bit. Both as Spider-Man and as Peter. Whilst he is heavily emotionally repressed and passive as 'Peter Parker' - he completely cuts loose as Spider-Man. This sense of restraint is what primarily fuels his warped sense of humour in fights. He also has a fierce temper, should he lose control. * Banter - Peter is a motor-mouth. As Spider-Man, the endless stream of heckling he dishes out is perhaps his greatest trademark as a hero. It puts his enemies on edge - makes each fight personal - and no matter what circumstance he's in, he'll be sure and insult them. (The only downside is, it also tends to have this effect on his allies as well). * Lone-Wolf... Spider - Peter has few friends, and fewer still who know his secret. He keeps himself isolated both due to his sense of loss and to preserve his secrets. The fact that he is swings from crisis to crisis often forces him to cut social engagements short (or miss them entirely). To those who know him, "Peter Parker" is disappointingly unreliable. Sadly, only very, very few ever get to see the other side, and come to understand that "Spider-Man" will always come first. Logs Category:Taken Characters Category:Marvel Features Category:Regular Characters Category:Altered Humans Category:1992 Births Category:New York City